History

While Hawker Aircraft Ltd. was introducing their Sea Fury prop-driven naval
fighter in 1944, they began to consider how to apply the new jet-engine
technology to the Fury design. Rolls-Royce had just introduced a new engine,
the B.41 (to be named the Nene), that had adequate thrust to propel the big
Fury airframe, and in November of 1944, Hawker provided a preliminary concept
of a B.41-powered Fury to the British government, with the designation
P.1035.

The design team, working under Sir Sydney Camm, removed the Centaurus radial
engine from the nose of the Fury, moved the bubble canopy as far forward as
possible, and put the Rolls engine in the middle of the aircraft, with
intakes alongside the fuselage and exhaust as a tailpipe going straight out
the back. After a little more thought, the Hawker engineers came up with a
follow-on proposal, designated the P.1040, in December, 1944; the new design
had a major refinement in that the straight tailpipe was replaced with a split
tailpipe, with each outlet in the wing root; this scheme meant the wing root
had to be thickened, and so the intakes were placed in the wing roots as
well. This layout reduced the amount of ducting and allowed fuel to be
stored both fore and aft of the engine, preserving the aircraft's center of
gravity as fuel was consumed. Avoiding having a long tailpipe also meant avoiding
any thrust loss effects which were keenly felt on the earlier lower powered jet
engine designs.

P.1040 VP401 lifting off on her first flight; unknown origin

The Fury's distinctive elliptical wing was abandoned for one with straight
edges (to simplify manufacturing) and the tailplane was raised to allow it
to clear the jet exhaust. The new design also had tricycle landing gear -
the first Hawker aircraft to do so; it no longer looked very much like a
Fury. Armament was specified as four 20-mm Hispano Mark 5 cannon. The P.1040
was intended for RAF use. Government interest, however, was mild; the war
would clearly be over before long, and both the RAF and the Royal Navy had
other jet fighter designs either flying or in the works. Nonetheless, despite
the end of the war, in October 1945 Camm ordered the construction of a prototype.

By this time, RAF interest had disappeared completely - their air planners
believed that their latest Meteors would be the hottest thing in the air for
the foreseeable future - and Hawker Aircraft, faced with massive cancellations
of orders for their prop fighters, hastily modified the P.1040 design for carrier
operation and submitted the proposal to naval planners in January, 1946.

VP422, the second prototype; Cyril Peckham, Hawker Aircraft Ltd.

Much to Hawker's relief, the Navy was impressed with the design and ordered
three prototypes and a test item; Hawker completed the prototype already in
progress to provide the initial aircraft and quickly constructed the others.
Camm's engineers then proceeded to refine the P.1040's design as a
carrier-based interceptor - as well as to consider what could be done with
the design to get the RAF interested again. This effort led to a number of
other designs including a swept wing version (the P.1052), a rocket engined
version (the P.1072) and a swept wing version with the jetpipe exiting at
the end of the fuselage (the P.1081, destined for Australian use but
cancelled in 1950). The P.1081 would however be the precursor of the extremely
successful Hunter.

The first prototype flew on 2 September, 1947; the project was announced to
the public a month later, disguised for some forgotten reason as a purely
company-financed effort. This pretense was dropped when the second prototype
flew a year later, on 3 September, 1948: it had folding wings, a
stinger-type arresting hook, and was fully armed. This second prototype was
used in carrier trials that indicated a need for a slightly longer wingspan
and arresting hook.

The third prototype took to the air on 17 October, 1949; it was essentially a
fully-functional production prototype, with longer arresting hook, provisions
for rocket assisted take-off gear (RATOG) and attachment points for drop tanks.
The powerplant was the Rolls Nene 101, providing 2270 kilograms (5000 pounds)
of thrust. Service trials proved successful, and on 22 November 1949, the Royal Navy
ordered 151 examples of the new aircraft, now formally known as the Sea Hawk.
The initial batch of 35 Sea Hawk F.1s was partly used for further service
trials (one of which ended disastrously when the folding wings unlocked on
take-off) and to provide the first examples actually delivered to Naval
squadrons (806 NAS receiving the first nine aircraft in March 1953).

When Winston Churchill had become Prime Minister again in 1951, he had
initiated a "Super-Priority" scheme to speed the production of certain critical aircraft,
and the Sea Hawk was one of them. The end result was that manufacturing was
relocated to Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft (another member of the Hawker
Siddeley group). AWA built 60 more F.1s. Pilots had noticed a tendency for
the ailerons to go into oscillation, and to
fix this problem the Sea Hawk F.2 was produced, providing power-actuated
ailerons and a few other small improvements. 40 were built.

The next variant, the Sea Hawk FB.3 (Fighter Bomber), first flew in
March of 1954 and incorporated a strengthened wing that could be configured
to carry a variety of stores; test configurations included carriage of two
500 pound (225-kilogram) bombs and dual drop tanks; 20 7.62-centimeter
rockets (each with a 27-kilogram warhead); and other combinations of bombs,
rockets, and mines. 116 FB.3s were built, but the Royal Navy had been so
overloaded by their Korean War commitments that they were unable to qualify
most of these aircraft for full use of stores. Despite this embarrassing
situation, an improved strike variant, the Sea Hawk
FGA.4 (Fighter Ground Attack) was first flown in August, 1954, and 97
would be built in all.

Sea Hawks massed start onboard a carrier; unknown origin

By 1954, however, other nations were beginning to field aircraft that could
break the sound barrier in level flight, and the performance of the Sea Hawk
was beginning to become a concern. The Rolls-Royce Nene was a centrifugal
flow engine, and it had become obvious by that time that this was a
technological dead end - with the axial flow engine being the way of the
future. This imposed a limit to the ultimate performance that could be expected from
the Sea Hawk, but some improvements were still possible; when the
5200-pound (2460-kilogram) thrust Nene 103 became available, about 50 FB.3s
and some FB.4s were re-engined with the Nene 103, becoming known as Sea
Hawk FB.5s. The increase in thrust was too modest to noticeably increase
the aircraft's top speed, but it did provide an additional margin of safety
for flight-deck operations.

FGA.6 plans

The new Nene 103 was also engineered into new production Sea Hawks, these
new machines being designated the FGA.6. 87 were built. The type would soon
see action alongside some FB.3s, providing close air support for the
Anglo-French Suez operation in November, 1957. During Operation Musketeer,
as the operation was known in the UK, 800, 802, 804, 810, 897 and 899
NAS aircraft were embarked on the carriers HMS Albion, HMS Bulwark and HMS Eagle.
The Sea Hawks delivered the weapons that the RAF's new Hunters (based at Cyprus)
did not have the range to deliver, attacking airfields, railways and anti-aircraft
sites. Heavy groundfire resulted in the loss of two Sea Hawks and several returned with
damage, but the aircraft acquitted itself well. It would not be the last time the
Sea Hawk drew blood, but it would be the last time it saw action in UK service.

Also in 1956, 22 Sea Hawks were ordered by the Dutch to operate with the
Naval Air Service (Marine Luchtvaartdienst - MLD), to be paid for with NATO
funds; these machines were almost identical to FGA.6 aircraft, but had a
Philips UHF radio and were designated as FGA.50s. Operated by 860 and 3 Squadrons,
most of these aircraft were later modified to carry a pair of Philco
Sidewinder 1A air-to-air missiles. At about the same time, the German Navy
(Bundesmarine) placed an order for 64 Sea Hawks, with the order evenly split
between day fighters and foul-weather/reconnaissance fighters; the machines
delivered were also basically FGA.6 aircraft, but with a taller vertical
tailplane. The day fighters were designated Mark 100; the Mark 101 was
similar but carried a large radar pod on one of the underwing pylons.

Sea Hawks on INS Vikrant; Bharat Rakshak

In UK service, the Sea Hawk was on the verge of obsolescence with the new
Supermarine Scimitar slated to be the
replacement along with the de Havilland Sea Vixen.
Phasing-out of the Sea Hawk began in 1958. By 1960, it had been completely
removed from first-line service in the UK. The last production Sea Hawks were 14
FGA.6 aircraft, delivered in 1961 to the Indian Navy; the Indians had ordered 24
Sea Hawks. Split half and half between new-build FGA.6s and converted FB.3s, the
Indians were impressed enough to later buy a further 22 Sea Hawks (a mixture of
FGA.4 and FGA.6s). In Dutch service the Sea Hawk lasted until 23rd October
1964 when the final example was withdrawn from use. The Germans retired theirs
the next year, and 28 of their machines were acquired by the Indians who were
obviously still impressed with the type! The Indians would continue to operate their
Sea Hawks for a much longer period of time, with the result that they were
still operational when the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971 flared up.

On the day of the Pakistani attacks against Indian airfields that
started the war, India's carrier, the INS Vikrant, had one boiler out of
action which reduced her speed and manouevrability. Despite this and an attempted
submarine attack she sailed for the major Pakistani port of Chittagong. On the 4th of
December 1971, Sea Hawks from the Vikrant attacked Cox's Bazaar and Chittagong.
Further attacks against other nearby harbours followed the next day, then
Chittagong was attacked once more. For no losses, the Sea Hawks left a scene
of devastation with the Pakistani port and its nearby airfield wrecked;
thus the Sea Hawk played its part in the Indian victory.

RNHF FGA.6 WV908 at RNAS Yeovilton, 2004; author

Five years later the Sea Hawk
was still in service and on the 4th of March 1976, Cdr. Peter Debras had the misfortune
to launched off the Vikrant when the catapult malfunctioned. The aircraft ditched in
the sea ahead of the carrier and sank. Unable to stop or turn, the carrier passed
over the sinking aircraft and Cdr. Debras waited in his seat until the carrier had
passed before ejecting. He survived and set a world record for the deepest underwater
ejection! The ageing Sea Hawks continued to serve until the early 1980s, when these old
aircraft were finally replaced by Sea Harriers - another Hawker design of course.

The Sea Hawk, conceived in 1944, with last production in 1961 and serving until the
early 1980s was in European terms a most successful aircraft - a production run of
524 and export success to three countries. It would be one of the last major export
successes before politics nearly wrecked the UK aircraft industry. The Sea Hawk's
clean and elegant design would eventually evolve into the Hawker Hunter, one of
the major fighters of the 1950s onward, and an even bigger export success.

Despite their simplicity and large production run, just a single Sea Hawk remained in
airworthy condition after their retirement, the Royal Navy Historic Flight's FGA.6 WV908.
Sadly after an engine overhaul in 2010 she has yet to return to the air and in early 2016
was placed in storage pending a future decision on whether to get her flying again.

This history is largely based on Greg Goebel's Sea Hawk document
from his Air Vectors series.